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Norway moving forward to get LED streetlightsSun Journal - Monday, March 19, 2018 The Board of Selectmen has voted to have Town Manager Dennis Lajoie write to RealTerm Energy advising that officials want to move forward with switching to LED streetlights. RealTerm Energy specializes in LED conversions for municipalities. Among its projects are conversions in Wells, Biddeford, South Portland, Falmouth, Rockland and Mount Desert.

Opinion: Central Maine Power transmission line project raises red flagsPortland Press Herald - Monday, March 19, 2018 Central Maine Power is engaged in a major public relations effort to convince Maine people that its 145-mile transmission line project, which would cut a new 53-mile swath through Maine’s scenic North Woods to bring Canadian hydro power to Massachusetts through our state, is good for Maine people and Maine’s environment. New Hampshire regulators recently turned down a similar proposal because of the harm it would do. So the question is: why should Maine accept a line like the one New Hampshire just rejected? Gov. LePage has vowed to ram the project through Maine’s DEP. If we want to send renewable power across Maine to Boston, a far better alternative would be to build farms of offshore wind turbines. ~ Ernie Hilton, Starks selectman and former Maine Board of Environmental Protection chair, and Adam Lee, Lee Auto Malls owner

Letter: Trump budget cuts make food insecurity worsePortland Press Herald - Monday, March 19, 2018 Food insecurity is an issue, especially for seniors, children under 18 years and adults with disabilities, who make up almost 66 percent of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in this country, as well as for the 58 percent of working-age, non-disabled adult SNAP recipients who work while getting SNAP, earning wages below living costs. By cutting off access to affordable, nutritious food for an estimated 4 million in-need Americans who have been oppressed by our federal government, further restrictions on SNAP could ultimately kill them. The Trump administration is using SNAP budget slashes as a way of saving money for other careless spending. ~ Ashley Kulesza, Lewiston

Letter: Install monument signsBangor Daily News - Monday, March 19, 2018 When my husband and I moved to Medway in 2016 to become the owners of a small business in the tourism sector (Pinegrove Campground and Cottages), the timing was right: Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument had recently been established. Since the monument’s designation, many of our customers have asked me about it and have been interested in exploring it themselves. What can we do to ensure these visitors have a positive experience? Let’s start with getting signs to the monument installed on Interstate 95 and on routes 11, 157 and 159. It’s so unfortunate to hear from customers who couldn’t find the monument and had to turn around when they didn’t know where to go. This doesn’t need to happen. ~ Kate Deshler, Medway

Letter: Local farmers care about neighborsBangor Daily News - Monday, March 19, 2018 When I buy food products from local farmers, I know how it is grown, raised and handled. I know the famers. We talk, and I learn. The product is consumed by the growers and their families and friends. Our local farmers don’t poison their families and neighbors. When I read the March 10 BDN article on food sovereignty, what I was reminded of was all the industrial meat and poultry recalls from supermarkets and food poisonings at fast food restaurants. Supermarket food comes from all over the world, processed by strangers who have no interest in our community. I don’t need government bureaucrats to tell me where to obtain my food, or how it ought to be produced. ~ Peter Nelson, Brooksville

Editorial: How much can Paul LaPage waste?Maine Environmental News - Sunday, March 18, 2018 According to a new review by The Associated Press, Maine Gov. Paul LePage has hired outside legal representation that has cost at least $110,000 just since last fall, raising his total expenditures on frivolous lawsuits to more than half a million dollars over the past four years. LePage seems determined to squander not only the public trust, but the public piggybank, before he stumbles off into the sunset next year. What a waste.

Nor’easters give New England ski resorts late season powder blastAssociated Press - Sunday, March 18, 2018 Back-to-back nor’easters that have pounded New England have given ski resorts a late-season blast of their life’s blood, luring skiers and snowboarders to the slopes, and allowing smaller ski areas that rely on natural snow to stay open. From Vermont to Maine, skiers and riders were cheering the mounds of snow.

Live trapping is one way to deal with freeloading rodentsBangor Daily News - Sunday, March 18, 2018 The current two-year tally at Nancy Donovan’s home is, Donovans: 95, Squirrels: 0. Nancy Donovan and her husband, Daniel, have been actively trapping and releasing the gray squirrels around their Presque Isle home since 2016 in an effort to keep the fluffy-tailed rodents from cleaning out their bird feeders. Nancy Donovan said, “We started keeping count to see how many of the little buggers we were going to get.” Turned out, an impressive amount. They caught 55 in 2016 and another 40 last year, all subsequently released a mile or two from their house.

A sauna in the woods draws devoted disciplesMaine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, March 18, 2018 Saunas have been around for centuries and are a way of life in many European countries such as Germany, Austria and Finland. They are not as popular in Maine, but there are many who find their way to the one in Denmark – the western Maine town at the foothills of the White Mountains. At the 33-acre holistic retreat, this outdoor European tradition takes place every weekend from October through March when the sauna is open to the public. Then a small community of sauna enthusiasts hike through the woods for a $15 visit.

Portland’s bustling port sees volume, value of goods more than double over five yearsMaine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, March 18, 2018 Shipping containers are piling up on the Portland waterfront at a record pace as the state invests millions of dollars into its largest port to encourage Maine’s growing trade links to Europe and the North Atlantic region. The volume of containers moving through the International Marine Terminal on West Commercial Street has more than doubled in the past five years and so has the value of goods, to $502.7 million last year.

100-plus nominations came in for the 2018 Source AwardsMaine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, March 18, 2018 Each April for the past four years, Source has honored a handful of accomplished Mainers, Maine organizations and Maine businesses working in the arena of sustainability. We were impressed with the number of nominations that talked about bringing people together, about building bridges between scientists and ordinary people, loggers and treehuggers, new and old Mainers, farmers and eaters. Tackling the immense environmental problems the planet faces – climate change, mass extinction, population explosion and water scarcity, to name a few – is going to require all of us. We’re so pleased to announce this year’s 2018 Source Award winners. They are leading the way. ~ Peggy Grodinsky, SOURCE Editor

Editorial: New plant shows brighter future for Maine lobsterMaine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, March 18, 2018 In a game-changing investment announced last week, Ready Seafood Co. is expanding its live and processed lobster business with a new 40-acre campus in Saco. In addition to their investment, they are receiving $2.4 million in research and development funds to build facilities where university and industry scientists can work alongside Ready’s in-house marine biologist to study and better understand lobsters. What they learn will be shared throughout the industry, helping the company as well as their competitors find ways to add value to a product that supports so many Maine jobs and communities.

Letter: Burying electrical lines would avert storm outagesMaine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, March 18, 2018 The news reports are full of accounts of fallen trees and impaired utility poles causing electrical outages that result in life safety and economic situations imperiling many individuals and businesses. The current policy of tree removal and resultant limb trimming is ineffective and does not result in an effective policy response. A more effective policy would require that all electrical utility transmission and local distribution lines be installed underground and that our monopoly utility distribution providers be required to file for justified exceptions from situations that may require exceptions from said policies. ~ Frederic W. Coulon, Rockport

Column: Big fish being caught at lakes throughout stateSun Journal - Saturday, March 17, 2018 This has been a winter that has brought ice anglers out on the ice in good numbers. Gouldsboro angler Ryan Bridges iced a 40-inch, 25.5-pound togue in February at Tunk Lake. At Sebec Lake, an ice-fishing grandmother hooked and landed a lake trout in the 12-pound range. Ice fishing college student Chris Parent from Biddeford brought home an impressive landlocked salmon in the 12-pound range. (The lake? He’s not telling.) Tyler Smith got lucky when he landed a 23-pound muskie that measured 40 inches at Wilson Pond in Monmouth. Dustin Harrington from Hampden, while ice fishing Moosehead Lake, caught a big-bellied brook trout that tipped the scales at 6 pounds. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

Historic 150-year-old Maine inn destroyed by fireBangor Daily News - Saturday, March 17, 2018 A historic inn in northern Maine built more than 150 years ago burned to the ground early Saturday morning. The Chesuncook Lake House was built in 1864 for supplying logging operations. Fifty miles north of Moosehead Lake, the lake house was listed on the Federal Historic Register. Maine Forest Rangers and Greenville firefighters responded to the scene by snowmobile. The owners said all family members and employees escaped unharmed.

Editorial: Contrary to LePage claims, land conservation is good for MaineBangor Daily News - Saturday, March 17, 2018 Even as Gov. Paul LePage continues his crusade against land trusts, a new report by a bipartisan group of lawmakers finds that these groups contribute a lot to the state, including tax dollars. The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee’s work should put an end to LePage’s false claims that land trusts and conserved lands are a detriment to Maine and its taxpayers. This report shows clearly that they are not.